GP contract changes could damage care

The British Medical Association has warned that proposals to make changes to the current GP contract could impact on the standard of care offered by doctors.

The BMA issued their response following the government consultation to implement comprehensive changes to the GP contract in April this year.

The association carried out an analysis of how the proposals would affect doctors' work and funding options, in addition to a survey of almost 8,000 GPs.

The results of the survey found that 58% of doctors said they thought they would need to implement changes to their services in order "to compensate" for the effects of the proposals.

Around half of GPs said their surgery would need to "reduce access" to patients and 91% said they would not be able to carry out routine appointments "as quickly" as the current system.

A fifth of staff said the effects of the proposals would mean they had to make clinical staff redundant.

The chair of the BMA’s GP Committee, Dr Laurence Buckman, said: "This huge package of changes fails to consider the cumulative impact… and includes suggestions which are simply not feasible in practice or would lead to unintended consequences."

"The changes would make it difficult for practices to maintain the level of care they currently offer while introducing an even greater focus on targets and box ticking at the expense of holistic, patient-centred primary care."